Boston's Immigrants, 1790-1880: A Study in Acculturation, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, With a New Preface by the Author / Edition 4

by Oscar Handlin

Overview

As fresh today as when it was first published a half-century ago, Boston’s Immigrants illuminates the history of a particular city and an important phase of the American experience. Focusing on the life of people from the perspective of the social historian, the book explores a wide range of subjects: peasant society and the cause of European migration, population growth and industrial development, the ideology of progress and Catholic thought, and urban politics and the dynamic of prejudice. A generation of students and scholars has profited from its insights, and general readers have enjoyed its lively style. A new Preface by the author reflects upon the book’s intellectual origins.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674079861
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/18/1991
Series:	Belknap Press Series
Edition description:	Revised Edition
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Oscar Handlin, a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, was Carl M. Loeb University Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard University. He was the editor of This Was America.

Table of Contents

Preface to the 1991 edition

Foreword

1. Social Boston, 1790-1845

2. The Process of Arrival, 1790-1865

3. The Economic Adjustment

4. The Physical Adjustment

5. Conflict of Ideas

6. The Development of Group Consciousness

7. Group Conflict

8. An Appearance of Stability

Appendix

Note on the Statistics of Immigration into Boston

Note to Table 8

Tables

Abbreviations and Note on Source

Notes

Index

Editorial Reviews

While there have been good general studies of immigration, this book by Oscar Handlin is the first historical case study of the impact of immigrants upon a particular society and of the adjustment of the immigrants to that society. The writer has opened a new field for historical research and has also made a significant contribution to the literature of race and culture contacts.

William F. Whyten Journal of Sociology

An excellent case study in the great problem of social assimilation. One feature, among others, that stands out clearly is its refutation of the all-too-comforting and popular notion that the American community, local or national, has been able to accept great contingencies of foreign population without experiencing significant and lasting modifications of its own cultural features.

American Sociological Review

Dr. Handlin has helped to illuminate a chapter in our history which, while local in its setting, has broad general implications… The book is eminently readable and characterized by imagination as well as learning.

New York Herald Tribune - Louis M. Hacker

This book has helped raise this field of American studies to a high level of distinction and satisfaction.

New Leader - Nathan Glazer

Handlin has opened a new field for historical research.

American Journal of Sociology - William F. Whyte

This book has helped raise this field of American studies to a high level of distinction and satisfaction.
— Nathan Glazer

New Leader

Handlin has opened a new field for historical research.
— William F. Whyte

American Journal of Sociology